Good service is key for future of local shops

COMPETITION is a fact of life and retailers in Guernsey must ensure they are offering a good quality personal service to battle easier access to online shopping, according to the chairman of the retail subcommittee of the Chamber of Commerce.

David Falla spoke after it was confirmed that retail giant Argos would be targeting islanders for the first time after developing a partnership with Jersey Post’s new delivery company, Ship2me.

It has been feared the new Ship2me service could have a devastating impact on local retailers as it becomes easier for shoppers to buy products - particularly larger items - online from any EU country.

But Mr Falla said local business would always face stiff competition, yet he believed Guernsey retailers could still be successful.

‘It’s very difficult to generalise but my view is that people often still want to view the product before they buy it and ultimately where retailers will succeed is if they offer a good personal service,’ he said.

‘Competition is a fact of life. However, if there is that extra degree of competition then the response from local firms should be that they are determined to provide that personal service.

‘Obviously there are some things and some people that are determined to buy from the internet and you cannot change that.’

Ship2me managing director Gary Whipp said its service could and would be used by local retailers, too.

‘We have been talking to some about them using us to deliver their stock,’ he said. (from thisisguernsey)

So where has the local business gone in Guernsey? went to Jersey last week there was loads of small shops in the town, what has the Guernsey Shop keeper done wrong... nothing they just find it to expensive to rent...

GD wrote:
"It’s very difficult to generalise but my view is that people often still want to view the product before they buy it"

Thats what a lot of people do, they view the product in our shops then buy it online ;-)

lots do and for what reason because buying online can in a lot of cases prove to be the cheaper option and with money being tight for some peeps thats the only option

Thistle wrote:lots do and for what reason because buying online can in a lot of cases prove to be the cheaper option and with money being tight for some peeps thats the only option

So its OK for local retailers to be a FREE SHOWROOM for online traders.

Thats why when Guernsey Pine Moves 95% of what we do, will not be available online, I dont have a problem with people buying online as I do a little myself, but to use Local retails stock and personal attention to sample the quality and decide what to buy and then go online, is not right.

why not .most shops dont mind people browsing.

It happens all the time, people go from one store to another to find the best deal, they take a test drive with no intention of buying from that particular car dealer, and so on. It would be something if they put a sign on the door saying "No admittance unless you make a purchase".

think thats what some people would like to see deebay.

Non of us mind spending hours as we do every day, with people who are even slightly interested in buying but unfortunatly some have no intension of buying from the shop they just want to make sure an item is good then they ask the make and model no so they can go online and get it cheaper for someone with low overheads.

If they had not found it in a local shop they would probably not risk buying it from a picture.

Obviously there are those who only think about their own pocket and dont care that the shopkeeper might have 60k rent and 50k other costs to try and find each year just to survive,

Those people think we exist just to show them the real product and we are a free showcase for online buyers, well when we are all gone then maybe some will be missed.

Fortunatly the regular customers that we have are the only ones whos opinions I care about and very few have complaints about our service or prices.

It's a shame but thats the way things are going and its going to get worse with this new jersey post company.

wayside wrote:Non of us mind spending hours as we do every day, with people who are even slightly interested in buying but unfortunatly some have no intension of buying from the shop they just want to make sure an item is good then they ask the make and model no so they can go online and get it cheaper for someone with low overheads.

If they had not found it in a local shop they would probably not risk buying it from a picture.

Obviously there are those who only think about their own pocket and dont care that the shopkeeper might have 60k rent and 50k other costs to try and find each year just to survive,

Those people think we exist just to show them the real product and we are a free showcase for online buyers, well when we are all gone then maybe some will be missed.

Fortunatly the regular customers that we have are the only ones whos opinions I care about and very few have complaints about our service or prices.

Times change and peoples outlook also differs from past generations,some companys realised this a while ago and moved away from traditional retail shopping,one good example is Littlewoods who closed all their retail stores and now operate online only.

Why should a shopper be concerned what rent the retail outlet pays,the shopper is out to purchase goods at a price they find acceptable,the shop owner decides when he opens a business if they rent enables him to be competitive.

maybe if your attitude changed a little wayside you might find more people buying from you.yes i agree your goods are of good quality but why should i pay a lot more to you than what i can pay online.when people are counting the pennies these things do matter.i have bought from you in the past when you were at vazon and love the two pieces i bought.

Never been at Vazon Thisle, as you seem to want to make it personal Thistle you are one of the people who are responsible for the decline in local trade, all you think about is yourself and saving your pennies and thats fine, but dont keep banging on about local traders ripping people off, for your information Bridge Furniture has never lost less than £20k in any one of the past 5 years, yes it makes a profit but all that profit and more goes on overheads, to try and make it work I have been in the shop since The Strawberry Farm closed (over 1 Year) and all I could do is cut the losses, I have worked for the last 5 years without earning a penny and I have to listen to the likes of you winge because you want everything cheaper,

I have been selling some items below what they were 20 years ago but thats not good enough for the likes of you, you expect me to run a shop at a loss so people like you can touch, feel and get all the info about the product and use us as a free demonstration for the Internet.

By all means buy off the Internet but if you have no intention of purchasing from me dont waste my time as I have given decades to giving my customers one of the highest levels of service in the Island.

In the past 30 years we have only charged 2 customers for fixing a product they bought off us and in some cases it was 15 years old.

We have always had Free Delivery, Rarely take a deposit, bend over backwards to get things here quickly, even yesterday i had to order £1000 worth of goods I dont really want to get a ladies £120 Coffee Table.

I resent the constant insinuation that we are all just here to rip people off most of us try very hard and are just slagged off by the likes of you and your backup buddy.

Its obvious that times have changed and are not going to get better which is why I am going back to just selling Pine much of which is bespoke furniture to customers sizes and then I dont have to be concerned about the internet or Argos as they just can not do the type of products we will be selling.

Wayside all you care about is if you make money maybe you should wake up to the real world people aint buying from local shops because the prices are stupidly high unlike online prices and the attitude you have and many other local shops have is unbelievable i wouldn't buy from you with the attitude you have towards people.

I was going to buy a mattress from you until i realised it was £90 cheaper online and that includes the delivery fee.
£90 is a hell of a difference that £90 can be spent on more important things like paying bills holiday funds.

I find it laughable that people say things like "all you care about is if you make money" you try going to work and see what your attitude would be when your boss does not pay you and says "all you care about is if you make money" we all have families and bills to pay.

Its strange that you dont think we deserve to make any profit.

We do have a problem with 1 mattress supplier who sells to online suppliers who just takes the order and sends them the address and the company sends direct to the customer, he has no stock, no shop, no storage in fact has never seen a mattress, the mattress is not taken to the customers bedroom by 2 delivery men its left at the door, its not unpacked and the rubbish cleared away, there is no option to remove the old mattress in fact there is no service at all and no chance to lie on the mattress to make sure you were happy. had you not tried out my mattress you would not have taken the chance buying it even at £90 less, I hope you were happy with our FREE ADVISE

Maybe you would like to tell me what the mattress was and where you bought so I can speak to my supplier about it.

guernsey pine and cane were at sorry grandes rocques got my beaches wrong please forgive me.what a silly woman eh.i am not making it personal wayside.you are the one that jumps up and down when people dare say we are being overcharged in guernsey .most of the population know that we are being ripped off in one way or another.i have never mentioned your shops when i have been talking about the vat rip off have i. as i have said i have bought two bits of furniture from you in the past and still have them now.as for saving pennies some of us unfortunately have to save what we can when buying new items of furniture as we dont have loads of cash to throw around. i have looked around your shop yes but have never ever gone and bought something similar from the internet after doing so.i was going to pop in to buy a rather nice little table i had seen last time i was in but sorry mate with your attitude you can whistle for my custom .may i ask what you mean by the likes of you .if thats not personal i dont know what is.

Its funny how everyone is/was going to buy this or that and I am supposed to feel like I am missing out the fact is you would not have, and all of the little tables have now been sold so you were probably too late anyway.

At least a dozen times I have said that the prices charged here are reflective of the costs to get them here you still insist it costs nothing to get goods here and shops are charging VAT when I asked you if it costs 15% to ship something here is it reasonable for the shop to pass on the 15% cost you always refuse to answer because you know that its only fair.

Shops in Guernsey are not able to match online prices purly because of the diference in overheads.

no point in arguing with you wayside as you will always be on the side of the business man. you just cant seem to see that if prices were a little bit less then maybe more goods would be sold locally.

well here is a simple example for you wayside maybe you may learn something from this.

When woolworths was open all the TVs were locally bought we had 2 contact our own supplier and order our own stock we realised we weren't getting the customers in because of the prices so we dropped the price big time we dropped them so low that there was only a maximum £50 profit per TV doesn't sound like much profit basically 4 TVs £200 profit but when you are selling loads then the supplier likes you as your ordering more and more with each order they give you special offers but you still keep the price low and guess what you get customers isn't that amazing just by keeping the price down and making a small profit you will get customers woolworths was the cheapest for many TVs that were in the Island. So we never had to worry about being beatin on the price and if we were we chuck in a DVD player which the supplier gave us for free

I recently bought a new pushang. High end model, not even on the UK market when ordered locally. Cycleworld recommended it as it fitted my needs perfectly, they gave me the details so that I could research it on the internet. A couple of online cycle specialists had it listed, with prices, yet without my bartering, Cycleworld comprehensively beat their prices, fitted accessories f.o.c. and have just carried out a 1st free service.

With this sort of service, I will recommend them to others and will be happy to buy there again.

There are some good local shops who will do that but unfortunately most of them wont

Thistle wrote:no point in arguing with you wayside as you will always be on the side of the business man. you just cant seem to see that if prices were a little bit less then maybe more goods would be sold locally.

That is not the case, last year I reduced all prices by about 13-15% just to test out that theory, it made no difference to turnover whatsoever.

killer wrote:well here is a simple example for you wayside maybe you may learn something from this.

When woolworths was open all the TVs were locally bought we had 2 contact our own supplier and order our own stock we realised we weren't getting the customers in because of the prices so we dropped the price big time we dropped them so low that there was only a maximum £50 profit per TV doesn't sound like much profit basically 4 TVs £200 profit but when you are selling loads then the supplier likes you as your ordering more and more with each order they give you special offers but you still keep the price low and guess what you get customers isn't that amazing just by keeping the price down and making a small profit you will get customers woolworths was the cheapest for many TVs that were in the Island. So we never had to worry about being beatin on the price and if we were we chuck in a DVD player which the supplier gave us for free

But where are they now GONE!

Not my fault they messed up in the UK Guernsey store 0270 and Jersey store 0110 always made the weekly targets and were always making the most money

But its the fact you don't care about the customer all you care about wayside is yourself and that is where you are going wrong put the customer first, then your prices and finally yourself stop being selfish and think about others.

Also i have a question for you I want you to answer for me you went into a shop for a piece of furniture and another shop was selling it cheaper your telling me you wouldn't ask them to do a price promise and buy it cheaper from them, i want you to answer this NOT as a buisnness man but some one who has a family and struggling with money you don't have much to spent on furniture but you need this item

If you were one of my regular customers or one of my staff or ex staff you would know that I always look after my customers sometimes to the point where it costs me dearly.

To answer your question, very few products I sell are available elswhere in the Island, But I will always beat a competitors price, usually I dont have to cut prices as we are usually the lowest anyway.

I can think of only 1 product that I know is £4.00 cheaper at one place but also there are 2 other places much dearer,

I can only think or 3 times in the past few years that people have said they could buy locally cheaper and on 2 occasions it was a similar product and not the same.

What a bunch of happy souls